John Locke: Historical and Philosophical Context
John Locke: Historical Context
English Civil War (1640-1649)
Confrontation between the parties of the absolutist monarchy (nobility, large landowners, Catholics, and Anglicans) and the parties of the parliamentary monarchy (small landowners, commercial and industrial bourgeoisie, Calvinist Puritans).
In 1649, Cromwell established a republic, but their political modes remained absolutist (dissolution of Parliament, repression, etc.).
Restoration of the Monarchy (1660-1685)
Absolutism returned:
- The power of the monarchy comes from God.
- Opposition of the bourgeoisie, the parliamentary party.
- Legitimacy of political power is the “social contract.”
The Glorious Revolution (1688-1689)
Parliamentary monarchy, with parliamentary supremacy, supported by the Conservatives (Tories) and Liberals (Whigs).
- Declaration of Rights: Precedent for the ideals of the independence of the United States in 1776, the French Revolution in 1789, and their respective bills of rights.
- Tolerance Law.
- Free elections.
- Individual rights and freedoms.
Sociocultural Context
The Threshold of Enlightenment
Two ways of understanding the world faced:
- The traditional, often Catholic (though not exclusively) conservative, nobles and landowners seeking to preserve the feudal system, supporters of absolute monarchy and the divine origin of power.
- Religious Wars: Thirty Years’ War.
- Decline of Spanish political power; at the same time, the splendor of the Baroque culture:
- Painting: Velázquez, Zurbarán, Ribera, Murillo, etc.
Philosophical Context
Continental Rationalism
- Innatism of ideas.
- Mathematical method.
- Usage of the scholastic method.
- Criticism of mechanism.
John Locke’s Thought
Analysis of Knowledge
His epistemology (theory of knowledge) does not believe in the existence of nativism and determinism, considering knowledge of sensory origin, and therefore rejects the absolute idea in favor of mathematical probability. For Locke, knowledge only extends to the relationships between facts, the how, not the why. On the other hand, he believes in perceiving global harmony, supported by beliefs and assumptions self-evident, so his thoughts will also contain elements of rationalism and mechanism.
He believes in one God, a creator near the Calvinist conception of the great watchmaker, basing his argument on our own existence and the impossibility of anything producing being. He describes God as the thinker of the rationalist Descartes in the Discourse on Method in the third part of it. Of the divine essence, only the accidents can be known, and their designs can only be advised through the natural laws.
He treats religion as a private and individual matter, which affects only the relationship between man and God, not human relationships. Under this privatization, man is freed from his dependence on ecclesiastical discipline and authority, and it diminishes the religious legitimacy of political authority, since he considers that there is no biblical basis for a Christian state.
He considers natural law a divine decree that imposes harmony through a global mindset (reverence, fear of God, natural filial affection, love of neighbor), specifically in prohibited acts (stealing, killing, and ultimately any violation of the freedom of others), requiring it for coexistence.